Where 2012 Speaker Slides & Video

Presentation slides will be made available after the session has concluded and the speaker has given us the files. Check back if you don't see the file you're looking for—it might be available later! (However, please note some speakers choose not to share their presentations.)

Our personal devices provide endless streams of data set in context of who we are, where we are, who we know, and what we do. But what can we realistically expect the future to look like, and how soon will it be before it gets here?

This talk will be an in depth look into using HTML5's GeoLocation API with PhoneGap. We will be going over everything from the basics to the quirks associated with the various platforms PhoneGap supports. We will also discuss other geospatial APIs such as accelerometer, gyro and compass.

Mapping tools keep cropping up all over the place, and data is everywhere. What are the pros and cons of the various mapping libraries? Should this information be visualized as a heatmap, as a sea of points, or something else? What are some new directions to explore in mapping and visualization?

Are $400 CPM’s possible? They are when location-based targeting is used effectively. Programs that deliver this level of revenue are based on a consumer opt-in, allowing the shopper to clearly state preferences. The savvy marketer will leverage loyalty and CRM data to drive great results, while allowing consumers to maintain control over their mobile experience.

Location-based Augmented Reality can be more than points of interest floating somewhere on the horizon. This session will cover how AR technology will enable the overlaying of location data onto buildings themselves.

Jack seeks to share his expertise with Where participants, including the current shopping trends surrounding online-offline convergence and how mobile devices are and will continue to play such large part in this movement. He will also share local data from eBay that illustrates the power of mobile in the local shopping area.

This talk will explore the legacy of infectious disease on our perceptions of geography and space. It will distinguish between the "fast maps" that came with outbreaks, and the "slow maps" that emerged as entire nations tried to outrun a ferocious killer like TB. And it will connect these fast and slow maps to our contemporary quest to eliminate infectious disease altogether.

Come learn how to publish and host your data, create compelling and beautiful maps as services, and get them to the people you want to reach. We will show you how to make a great map that can be accessed directly across multiple devices, as well as demonstrate how to use that same map as a great starting point to build custom applications that can run anywhere.

Open source tools let you design fast and beautiful interactive maps using your own data and share them on the web and mobile. This keynote will be a walk through showing how to use TileMill, and how it integrates with the web. Eric will take you from a spreadsheet to a custom designed map and then share it from a cloud map hosting service using embeddable widgets and the MapBox API.

Dwolla's architecture, technologies, accessibility and even its price point, serve as the foundation for what the startup believes to the payment network of the 21st century. Ben Milne, founder and builder at Dwolla, will elaborate on how new advancements, like location-based technologies, are helping pave the way a chance at ubiquity.

Hear how how brands like American Express, GE, and Nokia are using Foursquare’s Realtime API’s to connect with users in the here and now, creating real world experiences that surprise and delight consumers around the world.

Our conception of modern interactive games has typically been as fantasy escapism. These are worlds we go into to get a break from our normal, everyday lives. In these microcosms we can be a wizard, a space marine or rule a simulated kingdom. But what if games took a different perspective?

Geotargeting content in Facebook is not a widely used Facebook
feature, but perhaps it should be. In late 2011, NPR embarked on an
experiment to tap its 2.3 Million Facebook followers by presenting
local stories from a member station to users in a specific geographic
region.

There's a whole lot of spatial data out there. It's in your databases, in your spreadsheets, and streaming in from the great devices in all of our pockets. Getting the data isn't so much of a problem these days, but organizing it and sharing it across many applications is still a challenge.

Balloons are a central tool in the Public Laboratory mapping kit. Mathew Lippincott will demonstrate a camera-bearing helium balloon that is small enough to fly without prior FAA clearance to altitudes up to 4000 ft. It is an approachable, inexpensive way for civic organizations to document their events and environments.

Matt Kovinsky, VP of Business Development at Prism Skylabs, will discuss how a local coffee shop, The Creamery, is harnessing realtime video feeds and social media activity in ways that create Google-like analytics for real-world places while providing fresh, rich media content to engage offline customers online.

When developers work with an outdoor map they place annotations on the map using postal addresses and latitude/longitude points. Working with indoor maps, there is no longer a convenient globally defined address scheme or even a positioning coordinate system. This talk discusses the framework for a developer to place real world objects on an indoor map.

The current events in the Middle East and North Africa have shone a spotlight on how activists and ordinary citizens are using social media to organize for social change. This talk will focus on how LBS have been part of this change. The speaker will share real-life use cases where activists used LBS to save lives, and organize efforts to harness the power of the community for country development.

This talk will discuss Hunch Global, an experimental project at Hunch/eBay which generates a personalized heatmap over any part of the world. We use public reviews from local search sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor combined with Hunch data to determine "taste profiles" for geographic regions.

Google + Bing both have very specific, unique best practices for websites seeking to rank in their local and maps results. This session will dig deep into how the engines work and how businesses can earn their place in the local, organic results.

We’re all seeking greater insights from the mountains of data that surround us. At Oblong, we believe space is the key to unlocking the next-generation of computing and “cracking the code” of data overload.

Today’s smartest brand marketers get the importance of speaking to people on their own terms. The ideal cocktail of location-based messaging includes a dash of permission and a strong dose of context to turn a one-way push message into a two-way dialogue. We’ll dig into the pieces that will take mobile messaging into new dimensions.

Think back 10 to 15 years ago, there was probably a kid in your neighborhood that you could pay a couple bucks to wash your car or mow your lawn. We've lost that sense of community over the years because the age of the internet has siloed us. With the social networking in full force, that is changing.

Using mobile crowdsourcing to microtask the analysis of satellite imagery for disaster response. There are more than 2 million square kilometers of satellite imagery taken every day. This is a big data problem that cannot yet be addressed with automated algorithms. Microtasking and crowdsourcing is the way to go. This talk shares pioneering efforts with the UN to do just this in Somalia, Syria.

Why do people still hire real estate agents? Why the "defriending" trend on Facebook? Across industries, companies and consumers are looking for ways to decrease the noise, but still make good decisions with limited risk. Leveraging the wisdom of the crowds with detailed heuristic data leads to unique systems that optimize information and deliver it in meaningful package that communicates value.

This session highlights what is needed to bring the Nokia Location Platform, APIs and Apps into play and how we work with partners and developers globally to build the “Where” Ecosystem. Learn how to access rich, relevant map and place information to build priceless consumer experiences that span web, mobile, and automotive industries and are consumed in all the ways we experience the Internet.

With datasets the size of the whole world, it's important to having a realistic understanding of your data when you're designing an application. Learn how to incorporate data analysis using tools like Hadoop and Pig into your prototyping process, and banish Lorem Ipsum from your demos.

As online maps move from raster based tilesets to vector data, they can naturally alter the presentation and display of information according to the user’s digital device, actions and environment. This talk, replete with visuals, explores how maps can embrace the concepts of Responsive Design without rearranging geography!

As we share more real-time data through our phones, mobile services gain access to new situational awareness that lets them enrich the real world by unlocking unexpected opportunities. For this new class of services offering value within fluid locational contexts, we’ll see more emphasis on delivery through push notifications -- a channel with tricky strategies for success.

Could our cities be more community oriented if we layered them with stories? Using case studies from Washington D.C., Danny Harris, a folklorist and storyteller, shares insights from his work to bring the people and neighborhoods in the Nation's Capital together through the collection, curation, and distribution of place-based stories.

You see satellite imagery on Google Maps all the time, but how often do you stop to admire the amazing structures, patterns, and colors of our planet? Stratocam is a new web app, described as "Hot-or-Not for maps," that lets you discover and vote on the best satellite imagery around the world, and take your own snapshots of the planet for others to see.

We will discuss how to figure out what story to tell, select the right data, and pick appropriate layout and encodings. The goal is to learn how to create a map that conveys appropriate knowledge to a specific audience (which may include the designer).

Foursquare, Gowalla, Facebook Deals, Groupon – the list seems to grow by the week. For businesses, it can be an overwhelming task to understand and keep up. All of these platforms are part of what the industry refers to as Location Based Services.
This session will get you started on the path to realizing a broader, more than mobile location-based world.

More and more, the government is relying on companies that provide location-aware technology to assist in criminal investigations. This session will discuss the state of the law today, trends in government acquisition and use of location data, and the implications for users’ privacy. It will share information from the ACLU’s data-gathering, litigation, and advocacy efforts.

What if recent high school and university graduates in rural Kenya were able to work for Fortune 500 companies here in the U.S.? The internet is changing the face of the global workforce. For the first time in human history, we can tap the brainpower at the bottom of the economic pyramid and access a motivated, trained workforce in poor communities around the world.

Marketers are increasingly using the mobile platform to make traditional advertising like print, TV and outdoor more interactive and to enhance shopper marketing experiences. Interactive promotions via smart phones, text messaging, and on social media and the web make marketing and advertising more engaging, create lead generation and tie to mobile commerce transactions.

Why do we go where we go? Place is built by humans and reflects the people who go there. When we start to understand why people go the places they do, we start to better understand our customers interests, values, and opinions. And in turn we better understand the psychographics of place.

We've had it easy for a long while, with Google offering a large list of mapping and geolocation services pretty much for free, pretty much for everybody. But now they've placed a price tag on those services, which means it's time to decide if the price is fair.

Telling your own story can prove to be the most the difficult for marketers. Why not show it? Two agencies and a start-up joined forces to take SxSW by storm with a social experience like nothing before it.

The very simplest and most basic fruit of contemporary locational technology — a map that shows a user just where they are on it — also has the most profound implications for our understanding of the relationship between self and place. Yet the consequences of this turn for our conception of the world and our place in it is virtually uncommented upon. This keynote presentation aims to fix that.

Untappd, a start-up social beer check-in service, is helping users socialize, connect and find beer all from their device. This session will introduce you to the world of Untappd and how it's using location and check-in data to help you brewery find their customers and allows users to find better beer.

If you notice a black box hidden behind a plant while you're here, don't be alarmed. We're capturing Media Access Control (MAC) addresses to track location and flow patterns of Where Conference attendees. This keynote will explain exactly what we're doing and how, data privacy precautions, as well as visualization and open data use cases.

We all love maps, because maps are great. That's why we're here, right? But it turns out that sometimes maps aren't the right answer when it comes to visually presenting data with a spatial component. Noah Iliinsky will discuss why, and how to figure out when to *not* map your data.

At some point in 2010 the balance tipped over: the majority of the world's online information is now non-English unstructured data. This talk will explore how space and direction are expressed differently in some of the 5,000 languages in the connected world; how this can influence people's perception of space; and the implications for location-based technology and services.

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For information on exhibition and sponsorship opportunities at the conference, contact Gloria Lombardo at glombardo@oreilly.com